Adwords Call Metrics Available to US/Canada

Google announced that its Call Metrics product is now available to all advertisers in the US and Canada.

Call Metrics works not unlike other click to call providers. A toll-free forwarding number is assigned and placed next to a text ad unit on Google search results pages. When users call that number, Adwords registers the call and forwards it on to you.

So is the program effective? Google has connected over five million calls for thousands of businesses to date and those calls, and according to Google, calls generated from ads using Call Metrics last six minutes on average.

Google announced a few other changes with this rollout. In addition to showing advertisers the time, duration and caller area for each call which has been available since March 2011, Google is also making reporting available at both the group and campaign level. Pricing for “manual” calls is $1 USD – mobile clicks-to-call remain charged as regular mobile search ad clicks. Google won’t stop there.

Also worthy of note: In a future release, Ad Rank calculations, which determine an ads position and CPC will be incorporated. According to Google, “At that time, you’ll be able to influence your ad position by specifying a bid per call greater than $1.00 USD. This will parallel the way that clickthrough rate (CTR) and max CPC bids can influence Ad Rank today.”